Coffee and Cold Coast in San Diego

Coffee on a balcony above the water in San Diego, marine layer sitting flat on everything, the menu still on the table when the mug came out. Over the glass railing the road along the shore had a steady line of walkers and a white truck stopped near the fence, and past the palms a rock shelf stuck out into the cove with dark shapes hauled out on it — sea lions, I think, though at that distance a few of them could have been cormorants. Sat there long enough that the coffee went lukewarm and the shapes never moved.

Afterward, out to Sunset Cliffs on the Point Loma side — about four miles of them, sea caves and tide pools at the rocky access points people use at low tide. From up top you could hear the waves without seeing much break. The park is named for its sunsets, which the sky had no intention of providing today; gray straight to the horizon, and the horizon itself only a guess.